If you are in the Chicago area, make sure to stop by the Schneider Gallery for blog favorite Reuben Wu’s latest exhibition titled Distant Suns. Opening reception night is this Friday, January 10th, and will run through March 1st 2014, alongside Lynn Saville.

Some words from the gallery on Reuben’s work:

Somewhere between 1970s concept album art, expeditionary imagery, and Surrealist painting is where Reuben Wu’s photographs steadfastly sit. His are pictures made in the real world, however, through collapsing time and merging processes, the real is transformed into the surreal, evoking a response simultaneously familiar and foreign. The photographs amplify the strangeness of place and speak to Wu’s individual experience within it.

Gallery Carte Blanche is pleased to announce the opening of Spektrum Berlin, Matthias Heiderich on Thursday, July 19, 2012.
Featuring the work of German-based photographer Matthias Heiderich, in his first solo exhibition in the United States, Spektrum Berlin challenges visions and stereotypes of Germany, in particular East Berlin, through colorful eye-popping urban architectural photography.
Viewed together or individually, each of Heiderich’s images transform the banality and universality of buildings into a mosaic of geometrical shapes, reconstructing the world we live in into an abstract canvas of lines, patterns, angular compositions, and vibrant colors. Saturated to the limits of reality, Heiderich’s prints, emerging directly from a 1980s color palette and influenced by 1950s and 1960s color photography and polaroid images, look at an industrial past with a present freshness and optimism for the future.
Self-taught, Heiderich doesn’t often play by the “rules”, however the influence of German photographic tradition is apparent in Heiderich’s work. Invested in the same rigor and pragmatism as Bernd Bechers, Heiderich creates systematic photographic typologies of industrial buildings and structures, emphasizing how each building is a product of human mind and skill. Following his natural instinct for composition, in series after series Heiderich experiments, searches for individuality, and cultivates a unique style and sensibility.

Spektrum Berlin, Matthias Heiderich opens on Thursday, July 19 and runs through September 13, 2012. The opening reception will be held on Friday, July 20th from 6pm–9pm.

Stumbled upon this great Tumblr called Geometry Daily by German designer Tilman. Really enjoying how he’s chosen to display these creations. Plus, who doesn’t need a daily dose of geometry and minimal design?

Also, I’m currently revamping the Weekend Inspiration Posts. I’ll have one ready soon. Any ideas for subjects or topics, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Just came across this great Flickr set of The Canadian Architect covers from 1964-67, designed by Laszlo Buday.

Also, sorry for the abscence of this weeks’s Weekend Inspiration post. I’ve been helping out Tycho with the first leg of this summer tour dates, so haven’t had much time to post, but next Friday it’s back to business as usual.

Bored with your current Netflix subscription and tired of trying to find something you actually want to watch? Look no further because the Outliers Vol. 1 film has been fully released into the wild. A few years ago, a group of amazing creatives along with myself traveled to Iceland to create a beautiful documentary about Iceland. We teamed with musicians like Shigeto, Loscil, Eskmo, Son Lux, Heathered Pearls and Ryuichi Sakamoto to help us create a visual and sonic piece of art.

Head on over to the Outliers Vol. 1 website to watch the movie in its entirety in HD to bring some inspiration to your weekend.

While it’s fresh I thought I’d write up the process behind the Firespotter Labs logo I designed. This was an incredibly fun logo to design and probably one of the quickest, at least when contrast to some of the luxurious multiple month (!) design explorations I’ve done in the past for school or other companies. That said, it was exceptionally challenging; it’s hard to take a step back and think objectively about the company you’re a part of.

Before this, I had already designed a couple logos for some of the products we’re working on now. I had to break out of the “consumer application” design mindset I had been entrenched in for a few months. For the mothership, we needed something that conveyed that we were a lab full of crazy people brewing up cool things, while simultaneously appearing to be trustworthy gentlefolk worthy of venture support.

Before jumping into this process post I want to define my terms: This project revolves around the concept of ‘FOMO’, which if you haven’t come across, stands for “Fear of Missing Out”. Fomo is a very real and worrysome condition that can affect anyone at anytime. It describes that feeling of jealousy and helplessness when you miss out on something great. Typically the condition becomes more prevalent during the weekends, summer, and nighttime. For example, “When I was looking at John’s pictures from the submarine party last night, I had a really bad case of fomo.” If you are stuck at work right now and your friends just went skydiving, you have fomo.

Nofomo by contrast refers to the state of being in which you have cured your fomo. You do not have a fear of missing out because you are always the one doing something awesome. You actually cause fomo, rather than experience it yourself. If you are living your life to the fullest and saying yes to everything, you have probably achieved such a state.

This is a project about NOFOMO. (And while it may not seem like it, yes this was for school.)